This invention is related to educational apparatuses and methods for teaching and learning grammar and syntax.
The system presented in this specification was created and designed to facilitate the learning and understanding of the correct usage of the English language. It is designed to provide multisensory inputs. It assists the user in the comprehension of language (auditory and visual) and in the composition of language (vocal and written). Grammar and syntax are generally assessed by students as unfathomable, unusable, and unconquerable. Most students reluctantly, without recourse, struggle to pass through these school required courses with the least injury. They are not aware as are the erudite that mastery of language leads to the control and creation of one's own mental activity. The health of a democracy is in the competency of its citizens. We are now aware through the media that the public and public officials agree in the urgency to reverse the condition of language incompetency to language competency.
We think and understand in language. Meaning is an abstract word and refers to a variety of different issues. Meaningfulness of content is influenced by the learner's familiarity with the material. Meaning is influenced by whether the content can be placed in a larger meaningful context. Meaning is influenced by whether there is ability to move from whole to part and from part to whole of the content. Meaning is influenced by whether the learner is interested and believes that his/her efforts and acquisition are possible and worthwhile.
Desirable learning systems organize the material and relate the component parts to each other and to the familiar. At any and every step of inspection, familiarity with the whole gives significance to the component parts. This invention adds mnemonic significance to the specific choice of the colors- red, white, and blue, relating English grammar and syntax (the unknown) to the colors of the American Flag (the highly associated known). Further, the fixed serial ordering of the flag's colors, red, white, blue, provide serial imprinting for the development of the syntax of the sentence. Further, the use of shape mediates information that large shapes cue foundation words (noun, pronoun, verb, coordinate conjunction) and that small shapes cue modifications of the noun, pronoun, and verb foundation words. Further, the use of color mediates the parts of speech and the case of nouns and pronouns. Thus, the components of the system serve to reinforce each other, and, all serve to reinforce the oneness of the flag-language-syntax association.
The invention is highly semantically cognitive, visual, auditory and manipulable. As such, it provides a multisensory learning system: visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic. Goals are to assist the user in the comprehension of language (auditory and visual) and in the composition of language (vocal and written), etc. The invention is adaptable for use in grades 1 through adult level. Decoding and encoding language skills are increased by the use of mnemonic color and shape coded parts of speech cards.
Heretofore, educational systems and devices have been presented which utilize cards, placards, and other objects which represent words. Furthermore, there have been systems which presented some element of color and color relationships. U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,480 by L. V. Holland presents a game and teaching method which uses color coded cards in teaching the parts in speech. That method, however, uses uniformly shaped cards. Therefore, the shape coding is not present. Furthermore, the case of nouns and pronouns is not discriminated; action and linking verbs are not distinguished; relative pronouns and subordinate conjunctions are not distinguished; and infinitives are not mentioned. U.S. Pat. No. 3,325,976 by S. S. Elliott et. al., presents an educational apparatus which uses color coded cards or blocks representing words. However, as in the previously mentioned patent, the blocks or cards are not shape coded, that is, the shape of the members bears no information for the user. Furthermore, the specifically selected colors for the coding are not intrinsically purposeful. S. S. Elliott et.al. note that "the specific colors involved are of no moment as long as there is a certain correspondence . . . any other color may be used, as long as a correspondence exists." It should also be noted that the color coding is not comprehensive and that the possessive case of nouns and pronouns is omitted.
Additionally, S. S. Elliott et.al. supply four shades of one color for the nominative case and three shades of one color for the objective case. The present invention provides a more efficient one-to-one relationship between color and nominative and objective cases. In this invention there is a bonus for children who are beginning to read in grades one through three in that the red-white-blue sequence trains left to right awareness which very often is difficult for beginning readers.
This invention adds significance to the specific colors coded. It discriminates a step further in combining color coding with shape coding which in turn increases the sensory input thereby increasing processing efficiency by relieving the memory and association systems of more complex interrelationships. It will be evident that the American flag sequence of the color coding is uniquely significant and thus uniquely advantageous to the user. Other attributes and advantages of this invention will be readily discernible upon the reading of the text hereinafter.